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Painting formally attributed to Guido Reni, now to Ginevra Cantofoli
The author of this work has been highly debated, with many previous critics assigning the work to Elisabetta Sirani, and categorizing as a statement by a 17th-century feminist. She is depicted in the white robes of a Roman Sybil or perhaps a vestal virgin, evoking sympathy. She looks back melancholic at an angle backward. Tradition holds that he painted the work for the Cardinal Ascanio Colonna. The work has inspired many romantic artists including Stendhal, Percy Shelley, Dumas, Artaud, and Guerrazzi. The debate over the authorship and its influence are as interesting as the work itself. Traditions with no factual documentation claim Reni entered her cell the day prior to the execution, or saw her on the way to the scaffold. Others claim he was not even in Rome at that date. The earliest Barberini catalogue states it likely depicts the Cenci girl by an unknown painter. A later one attributes the work to Reni, but in the 2021 Barberini/Corsini book attribution is now to Cantofoli (albeit with a question mark).
